10 Players You Didn't Know Nearly Signed For Middlesbrough

3. Patrick Kluivert

Scorer of a Champions League winning goal, a European Championships Golden boot to his name, and several other personal and team accolades, Patrick Kluivert was one of the biggest names in world football for a while. Regularly breaking the 20-goal barrier at the Nou Camp, the prolific Dutchman bagged an impressive 120 goals in 255 appearances for a Catalonian outfit largely in transition. The story of his doomed transfer to Middlesbrough comes in two parts, with an interlude of eight years. With the 20 year old Dutch international expected to join AC Milan from Ajax for the 97/98 season, Boro boss Bryan Robson swooped in with a wage package worth around £1.5 million a year during the summer of 1996. Tabling an offer of £6 million for the youngster who shot to fame with a late winner in the 1995 Champions League final against the Milanese, Robson hoped to somehow win the race for his signature. When that was inevitably rejected, with the Dutchman preferring to wait a year for a move to the San Siro, the links resurfaced in the summer of 2004, following his release from Barcelona. Boro chief executive Keith Lamb made no secret of his desire to link up with the 27 year old free agent, claiming that €˜he is the sort of player that would excite the fans and fill the stadium€™. Following talks, however, Kluivert would dismiss €˜a move to a small club€™, citing his preference for a move €˜to one of the big London teams€™. Apparently, it has since emerged that it was Middlesbrough who did the rejecting, however, and with Kluivert having ended up in the north-east with Newcastle anyway, who would disagree?

''Steve McClaren said €˜George, I have a question - I can get Patrick Kluivert here to Middlesbrough or I can get Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Which one do you think would suit the club better? I told him if he wanted to achieve something and have a real go at European football with a leader who would fight and scrap for everything, as well as score goals then I would say go for Jimmy.€™€™ - Former Boro captain George Boateng, July 2014.